Hi, I'm Morgan Sung, host of Close All Tabs from KQED, part of the NPR Network, where every week we reveal how the online world collides with everyday life. You don't know what... Because you don't know if AI was involved in it. And I think we will see a Twitch streamer president maybe within our lifetimes. You can find Close All Tabs wherever you listen to podcasts.
Happy Friday, everyone, from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee's 88.9. Hey, Aaron. Hey, thanks so much for having me. I am delighted to have you. We are going to talk about the glories of art. shared, beloved home state of Wisconsin later in this episode. But first, before we start talking about new records, I did want to mention tomorrow, Saturday, April 12th,
is Record Store Day. Coast to coast, independent record stores all over the country are going to be selling exclusive titles, rare, seven inches, live albums, reissues. kind of record store day exclusives and i was wondering aaron you like me are a music nerd is there anything that you are specifically looking for. I have my eye on this Soul Slabs Volume 4 from Coal Mine. They just always put out these really good various artist compilations.
Got Delvon, Lamar, Oregon Trio. You've got the Monophonics, Aaron Frazier. And also, I have to say... I have not yet been able to get my hands on a copy of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. And I really want that on vinyl. And probably in my bag, it'll be Air's Moon Safari live and demos. Yeah. And the cure is the hat on the door, the picture disc. Record Store Day is such a crapshoot, you know.
For every really cool obscurity that you've been dying to get your hands on, you get things like there's going to be a 12-inch picture disc of We Built This City by Starship. And I feel like that's what I'm, I fear that that's what I'm going to run into instead of what I'm actually looking for, which is an album called Original Dreams Songs from Showbiz by a band called the Rockafire Explosion.
If you've never heard of the Rockafire Explosion, they were the animatronic band at Showbiz Pizza in like the 80s. Imagine like... a funkier version of Munch's Make Believe Band from Chuck E. Cheese. If you have not watched mashups of the Rockafire Explosion with contemporary pop and R&B songs, do yourself the world's biggest favor and Google the Rockafire Explosion in this club.
where they mash up ushers in this club to this animatronic band. It may be the literal funniest thing on the entire internet. I am definitely looking for this album by the Rockafire Explosion. I'm sure what I will find instead is 75 7 inches of Taylor Swift's Fortnite. Oh yeah, no doubt. You know, Stephen, there's a documentary about the Rock of Fire explosion. Yes!
You need to see this if you haven't yet. They sometimes do deluxe editions of albums that didn't sell very well, like anniversary editions, and there's a 25th anniversary reissue of Harvey Danger's King James version. which is a phenomenal record, and I'll be looking for that as well. New Music Friday, a roundup of albums out today, April 11th. We're talking about Bon Iver. Bon Iver's new album is called Sable Fable.
So Sable Fable is Bon Iver's fifth album, band from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, led by Justin Vernon. Famously, Bon Iver began as a solo project in that mythical Wisconsin cabin. Now it's kind of bloomed into this giant community. These songs have gotten bigger and dreamier and more expansive and experimental over the course of the years. But at the same time, this record is chronicling
changes in Justin Vernon's life as he's moved through the world. He's processed so much sadness and grief in these songs that are deeply, deeply reflective. And this record, Sable Fable, is kind of about... cutting the darkness with joy. Even the title Sable Fable, Sable is referring to kind of darkness and fable is referring to joy and wonder. And this record is kind of riding that juxtaposition.
I mean, I recently spoke with Justin about the record, how it came to be, and what he called his sad former self. He basically said he went into the woods. And then figuratively, he came out of the woods again. You know, he was focusing more on making good with himself as a person. And it felt like he just had like a really heavy yoke around his shoulders like he was supposed to be this.
sad hermit bearing all this heaviness. I think he's finally allowing himself to break free of that persona and just step into joy, just, you know, as a basic way of telling this lore. There's so much mythology around Bon Iver. That story of the musician who retreats to the Wisconsin cabin to process his pain is really, really deeply wired into a lot of musical stories in the last 20 years.
And at the same time, he's not obligated to carry on processing the same pain he was processing in 2007. I appreciate the kind of defiant joy that comes through on this record. One of the singles from this record is called Everything is Peaceful Love. And when I first heard it, I thought, wrong song for this moment. But then you think about it like it's a reminder that we have a right to joy. We have a right to experience happiness. We only get one life.
And if you are feeling enveloped by love in times that are trying, good for you. Spread it around. He's like healing himself and he's kind of offering up like a little lifeline to everyone else who's in this mire right now and you know I think part of the reason it sounds so joyful also I feel like He's reconnecting with himself. He recently renovated April Bay Studios.
was lying dormant for such a long time. He returned there to make this record with producer Jimmy Stack. He invited some new guests there, kind of breathed new life back into April Base. He's got some really cool collaborators on this one this time around, Dijon and Daniel Haim and McGee. He's, I don't know, he's kind of like opening up his world and letting people in. And you can just hear that. joie de vivre so to say and there's just something really beautiful too about
Justin staying in Eau Claire and staying true to his roots. It feels like such a comfortable space for him right now. There's a track on this album called Day One, which features, you mentioned Dijon, but also Flock of Dimes, Jen Wassner's band. Just a fantastic, fantastic project. So you suddenly get Jen Wozner's voice coming in. And I really felt hearing that song, you're hearing an infusion of the musical community that surrounds him.
you hear like the sable songs that are a little dark a little hermody and then this storm breaks and all of a sudden you know you've got what is it short story kind of leading in It feels like a vibe. He's like arrived into a new season of his life. That's Sable Fable, the new fifth album from Bon Iver. Next up, a new album by Valerie June. Valerie June has a new album called Owls, Omens, and Oracles. Not all artists are cut quite like Valerie June. Just for you.
She is just the most expansive artist dabbling in psychedelic folk, indie rock, Appalachian, bluegrass, country, soul, gospel, you name it. She's like humble and open to speaking truth and having those hard conversations in song. And she's just got this really deep humanistic knowledge. One of the songs on Owls, Omens, and Oracles called Sweet Things Just For You, she asked.
How do we show up for each other with the spirit of sweetness in every move? And although it seems easy, I found it to be super challenging to practice sweetness, especially when we're facing the hurdles of the modern world. Valerie June's new album is not just about practicing sweetness unto others, but it's also... practicing sweetness unto your own self, transforming your mindset into one of joy, trust.
love, and every other good thing that you could focus on instead of the millions of other things that could distract you from your own goodness. Valerie June, she has such an eccentric kind of throwback of a voice, but she's not just using it to make... songs that feel, you know, vintage or old timey. She's deploying it in the service of many, many, many different kinds of sounds. That sweet voice that feels like it's, you know, billowing out of a radio in the 40s.
can be applied to a kind of aggressive sound or a track like Superpower where she's got this kind of spoken word twang, you know, with dub vibes around it. painted world calling my spirit back to me trusting Laid in the record, there's this contemplative stretch of songs, calling my spirit or a kind of gentle ramble like my life is a country song. That voice, part of what makes it feel so immediate and present is just how versatile she is genre-wise.
Find it inside. Producer M. Ward did an amazing job, like, making everything sound so cohesive and, yeah, giving it that kind of old-timey vibe, but, you know, it makes you listen up.
It makes you really catch what she's saying, you know? Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned M. Ward and the fact that M. Ward's production stamp is all over this record because I think that is such an ingenious pairing of artists that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of off the top of my head you know like his music is so ornate and thoughtful and
and extremely literate, musically literate. And when you apply that to Valerie June, who is so musically multilingual, you just get ideas blooming from every corner. Only guiding light will keep me What she's thrown at you, too, spiritually, I feel like. I feel like this album listening to, it's a little bit like...
You know, going to church or going to your corner bar and like hearing someone play music in a dimly lit corner and just like the community that it's inspiring. It feels like music that's bringing people together. That is Valerie June. Her new album is called Owls, Omens, and Oracles. We've got more great records we're going to be talking about this week, but first, let's take a quick break.
This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate. No markups or hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. This message comes from Monday.com. Work management platforms. Red tape, endless adoption time, IT bottlenecks. And after all that, nobody really uses them. But what if you didn't hate your workplace?
Monday.com work management platform is different. You can make any changes you want and adapt it to your needs in an instant. No admin middleman. That's why people actually love using it. Monday.com, the first work platform you'll love to use. At Radiolab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing or politics, country music, hockey, sex.
of bugs regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers and hopefully make you see the world anew Radiolab adventures on the edge of what we think we know wherever you get your podcasts. On the Wild Card Podcast, author John Green fights to be optimistic.
that hope is the right response to the human condition. And I have to learn this over and over again because despair is an incredibly powerful force in my life. I'm Rachel Martin. Join us for NPR's Wildcard Podcast. the show where cards control the conversation. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolfe of 88.9 from Radio Milwaukee.
Aaron, before we start talking about the next crop of records, I wanted to ask you how things are going at 88.9 and how can people... We just celebrated 18 years of Radio Milwaukee. We're getting ready to celebrate three years of Hyphen, which is our urban alternative station on Juneteenth of this year. And at 88.9, the Indy Alternative Station, we're gearing up for some great studio Milwaukee sessions. We've got Craig Finn and Valerie June coming in. And also, yeah, we're plotting and planning.
Some special sessions with artists coming to Milwaukee for Summerfest. And if people want to follow along on both stations and stream, you can do so at radiomilwaukee.org, hyphen.org, and on our mobile app. It's wild. There are people in this country who have not heard of Summerfest, which is in Milwaukee every July. That is one of the biggest music festivals in the world.
The sheer volume of unhealthy fried food, it's heaven. You do. You do. It's beautiful. It's like a state fair combined with a big music festival. There's nothing quite like it. All right, next up on New Music Friday, we've got a new record from Gerald Clayton. Gerald Clayton has a new album called Ones and Twos.
So Gerald Clayton is a piano player and a composer. He's been recording for Blue Note for a while now, making really adventurous and expansive jazz music. And listening to this record, I put this record on without any contact. and was really kind of drawn into just the cool vibes of it all, but also just like a sense of... searching and scope. These songs really convey these interesting moods and everything. And then I look at the album on my iTunes and I start to notice patterns.
and realized as I kind of dug in and started reading about this record that this album is designed where you can take side A and side B, you know, split this record perfectly into halves and overlay them and play them on top of each other. Do you remember many, many years ago, the Flaming Lips put out an album called Zyrica?
It was four CDs. They were designed to be played simultaneously. So you would set up four boomboxes with your friends and hit play at the exact same time. And they would overlap, kind of overlay and kind of create.
This really cool kind of symphonic sound. This record is a little like that. It's two records that... individually they sound great like they really work as individual pieces but if you basically in this day and age you set up two laptops with the same album on it play them simultaneously and you get a different vibe Did you do this? Yes, I did. And it is richer and fuller. But it's also not 100% necessary to do that.
I think it shows like as a writer, he's thinking about music from like the stance of being a live performer. These parts that he writes and plays with his band and producer that, you know, he can mix, match and meld together with the right approach. I didn't quite listen to the two sides back to back but I listened to it singularly and ones and twos just feels like this really like wide-eyed and totally smart imaginatively produced album.
It's just got these dynamics of tension and release, harmony and dissonance, and I really think it's helped along too by the production work of the talented CASA overall. He is a jazz musician and producer from Seattle, who I've been very lucky to see perform at Radio Milwaukee. And I think the songs I was drawn to most, like sacrifice culture.
Rush and Spacey's all had kind of a hip-hop element to that and I don't know I think I'm probably going to be listening to more Gerald Clayton in the future I really thought his music was super imaginative and exciting. He's surrounded by extremely talented players here. You have Joel Ross playing vibraphone. You have Elena Pinderhughes on flute, Marquise Hill on trumpet, and Kendrick Scott, who's his drummer.
And those sounds are blending in beautiful ways, but as you said, there's also this element where it's inspired by turntablism. It's supposed to sound remixed in a certain way, and that's where Casa overall comes in. second of this song, it's not fussed over in a way that makes it feel like a museum piece. It's fussed over in a way where it all fits together.
track like Rush, this like high-tech cocktail razzmatazz that I really love that feels like a throwback to like a lot of the cocktail jazz of the 50s and 60s. I really dug this rock. That is Ones and Twos, the new album by Gerald Clayton. We highly recommend it. Next up, a new album by the band Real Lies. It's called We Will Annihilate Our Enemies. Realize was established in the UK about a decade ago. It's the duo of lyricists,
Kevin Lee Karras and producer Patrick King. And they call the new album an 11-track ode to finding magic among the madness. Otis Hart, our producer, recommended we talk about this record, and I was listening to it and I thought, oh, I know why Otis thinks I'm going to like this record. This is like an EDM version of the band Stars. Do you know Stars? That mix of salt and honey. These like acerbic lyrics, but they're also beautiful and catchy. And I felt like this tapped into that.
kind of vibe really, really effectively. You've got these tracks that are built on these kind of EDM arrangements. talky vocals that are really dramatic and intense and at times deeply sad. There's a track on this record called Loverworld, which is kind of tapping into one of this record's big themes of how hard it is to find love in the digital realm. It's really cool and catchy and it's kind of a banger, but it has this undertone of deep melancholy.
Yeah, it does. It feels very teenager-y to me. This record reminded me so much. of what i was listening to about 20 years ago you've got that underworld vibe um back in the day you know the train spotting soundtrack was all the rage romeo and juliet soundtrack was all the rage And yeah, there is this like EDM meets Pet Shop Boys kind of ethereality, which makes, I don't know, it just kind of pumps up this romanticized.
aspect of being in your 20s and being supremely glum, for lack of a better description, you know? Everybody has felt like... And I think this is music that really does immediately tap into that. But I love the way my favorite kind of dance music, my favorite kind of electronic music. has this sad pulsating part at the center of it. I think that's been true of electronic music for as long as there's been electronic music.
One thing that really strikes me about this record is how conversational it is. I used the word talky a second ago. That gives this record a sense of intimacy that not all electronic music possesses, where it really feels like human beings having a heart-to-heart conversation. There is like a sense of poetry about the delivery. are speaking on themes of alienation, but there seems to be a longing to connect.
Oh, absolutely. And that's one of the big themes of the record. And I appreciate that this release day in music, April 11th, is expansive enough to include an album called We Will Annihilate Our Enemies and a song called Everything Is Peaceful Love. I just appreciate how much music has to offer us this week.
That is, we will annihilate our enemies by real lies. I should note that this album was scheduled to come out today, April 11th, but it got pushed at the last minute to this coming Wednesday, so you won't be able to find... the whole thing on streaming today but it is worth waiting for we've got one more record we're going to talk about in depth but first let's take a quick break Oh, hey there. I'm Brittany Luce. And I don't know, maybe this is a little out of pocket to say, but...
I think you should listen to my podcast. It's called It's Been a Minute and I love it. And I think you will too. Over the past couple of months, over 100,000 new listeners started tuning in. Find out why. Listen to the It's Been a Minute podcast from NPR today. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee's 88.9. We've got a lightning round of some of our other favorite records out this week, but first we wanted to talk about one more.
an EP by a band called Kills Birds. It's called Crave. Kills Birds is led by vocalist Nina Letty, a filmmaker and Bosnian-born Canadian who moved to L.A. to follow her love of film. And just like a good film, Kills Bird's songs are really epic. I love how crushingly heavy their songs are while still maintaining this dominant melodicism. Modern bands like Mama and Ben Stellar are also really good at making tuneful heaviness too, and it feels like there's a new generation.
taking the lead on a new brand of hard melodic rock. And unsurprisingly, Aaron Kobayashi-Rich, who's worked with both Mama and Ben Stellar, produced this EP. The Mama comparison hadn't really occurred to me. Another great LA band that we just talked about on this show last week. That Mama record is one of my favorite of the year so far. And this is a pretty stellar kind of companion piece to that. It's just five songs.
Just this dose of heaviness I didn't know I needed as the weather's been starting to get warmer. It's kind of pummeling and potent, windows down, revving a motorcycle, kind of just like big booming rock. It's funny, you know, when we were looking at the albums that were coming out today, April 11th, Otis Hart, our producer, kind of pulled this out and was like, who is this band? What is the deal? We've never covered this before. And then he found that I had written about them for the Austin 100.
this roundup of artists that we would be excited about at South by Southwest each year. And for 2020, the sadly canceled South by Southwest, this band was scheduled to play. And this was one of... bands that i had discovered and then subsequently completely forgotten about and it was interesting going back and listening to the track that i'd picked for the austin 100 it was called volcano very good song
Listening to that and then these five songs, you just hear a band that has really tightened up and revved up its sound. They're never drowning out Nina Letty, who just has this volcanic presence at the center of this band. Yeah, yeah, throughout the songs on Crave, she really doesn't... compromise their vocals by letting that heaviness deflate those vocals in any way. Instead they seem to grow stronger the heavier things get.
And I get this really strong visual of her screaming into the abyss amid wailing and howling guitars. It was so satisfying to listen to this because it felt like true human catharsis. fragility in its most chaotic state. And like a bunch of the bands that we've talked about, including this band, like Mama, this would fit...
pretty cleanly onto a 90s playlist. This is drawing from a bunch of different sounds, but in many ways it just feels kind of classic and undeniable. Like, I could absolutely play this for my metal-loving daughter and have her get into this band. They have certainly gotten cosines.
You know, from other major artists, they toured with the Foo Fighters for a while. Dave Grohl has spoken very admiringly of this band. And Nina Letty, she's definitely been around and connected in the industry for a while. But people need to be hearing her music. This is a small investment, people. It's five songs, 16 minutes. They're called Kills Birds. The EP is called Crave.
To close out this show, we wanted to do a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, April 11th. I'm going to kick us off with the rowdy Americana band Turnpike Troubadours. They've been around on and off for about 20 years now, and today marks the release of it. seventh album. There's been vanishingly little advance word about this record, which was announced just a few days ago via a billboard in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
But the album is out now, and like its predecessor from two years ago, it was produced by Shooter Jennings, which gives you a sense of some of the kind of outlaw country vibes going on here. This record is called The Price of Admission. North Carolina's Daughter of Swords latest sees them shedding inhibitions and constructs in both music and in person. Their former folklines takes on some synth-pop flair.
Thanks to the production and musical input from Nick Sanborn and Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso, Alex Sausser-Monig spent years in the folk trio Mountain Man alongside Meath and Molly Starlays, showcasing... the true beauty of their joined voices and close harmonies and on Daughter of Sword's new album, Alex. There's like this synth pop infusion to that folk pop foundation and it provides some unexpected twists and turns. that just sparkle real hard.
The haunting and mysterious UK dream-pop duo Jadu Heart has moved through many phases over the course of its nearly decade-long career. Right now, they're currently kind of building a following in part because they're opening for Fontaine's DC on its latest tour, another band that has moved through many phases. Jadu Heart has played in masks and with alter egos.
Now they've kind of taken off those masks and are trying different sounds. Their music touches on everything from electropop to shoegaze to grunge. Jeduhart is still expanding its sound on it. stylish new fourth album. It's called Post Heaven. Toronto band Casper Skulls, I just really appreciate that they're so good at reminding me of things I already love and have loved for years.
On their new album KitKat, there's a delightful array of indie rock flavors, like the countrified twang on Spindletop. There's just like a grab bag of amazing sounds that I've loved for years. It's also giving me book vibes in a way. I feel like I'm reading a chapter of a book that's from a different author throughout, but it all just flows. And I love albums that make me feel like this. This is totally... an album I would read again, if that makes any sense.
Finally, in 2021, The Flaming Lips released an album-length collaboration with a Canadian 13-year-old named Nell Smith. It was a collection of Knit Cave covers called Where the Viaduct Looms. Sadly, Nell Smith died in a car accident at 17 last fall and now her family has released a posthumous solo debut.
It's full of bright, catchy, immensely promising indie pop songs. Proceeds from this record will go to a memorial fund that supports young musicians. That album from Nell Smith is called Anxious. And that is our show for this week. Thank you so much, Aaron Wolf, for taking time out of your week at 88.9. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me. It's the week of Bon Iver's release. It's always exciting.
If you enjoyed this week's show we always appreciate a positive review on Apple or Spotify or whatever app you're listening to right now. This episode was produced by Simon Rentner and edited by Otis Hart. The executive producer of NPR Music is Saraya Mohamed, and her boss is Keith Jenkins, NPR's vice president of music and visual.
We'll be back next week to talk about new records from Rhiannon Giddens, Julian Baker, and more with WUNC Music's Brian Burns. Until then, take a moment to be well, plant a garden, and treat yourself to lots of great music. Cell phones, cars, coffee. How do these goods make their way to us from overseas? And what will President Trump's tariffs mean for their price tags? Join the 1A podcast as we explore supply chains and costs associated with some of your favorite products.
It's our series, How Did This Get Here?, every Wednesday. Listen to the 1A podcast from NPR and WAMU.